The Number of the Beast Minus Five Digits

What are you willing to sacrifice for God? The latest trend suggests the lobbing off of your hand. In recent months, hands have been self removed in order to praise Allah, as an offering to the Hindu God Kali and now to avoid eternal damnation. According to The Associated Press, an unnamed Idaho man cut off his hand because he believed he saw "the mark of the beast" on it.

Now under observation in the protective custody unit of the Kootenai Medical Center, the man appears to have been motivated, at least in part, by scripture. The 13^th book of Revelation states that the mark of the beast will appear on the forehead or the hand. Additionally, the book of Matthew suggests, metaphorically some believe, that if "the right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away." The Hayden, Iowa man took an extra, unspecified step by cooking his hand in his microwave oven.

"It had been somewhat cooked by the time the deputy arrived," Hayden Sheriff's Capt. Ben Wolfinger said, according to the AP. Upon inspection, no images or tattoos were readily visible either on the man or his singed hand. It was not immediately known if the subject had a history of mental illness.

In July of 2006, and Springfield, Illinois man sliced off his hand on a butchers band saw after distracting the attending butcher. The man then ran out of the market and out into the parking lot trailing blood behind him. Witnesses at Springfield's' Super Halal Meat market reported that the man exclaimed he was "not a terrorist," and had cut off his hand "for Allah." Worse off, it was a family outing. The man brought his son with him to the store.

More recently, on August 1^st, 2007, a Nepali man cut off his right hand as an offering to the Hindu God Kali, the goddess of power. Rajesh Tajpuria runs a local drug store in Rangeli, Nepal and similarly showed no signs of mental illness.